A Play About a Sculptor

Play Bill for Cry Tiger

A few years ago I had an interesting opportunity to particitpate in a play about a sculptor, Cry, Tiger!  The play was produced by an art collector and performed in Arizona at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts.  My involvement was that my work was used as the work of the main character, a sculptor. The work I had in my studio was ideal for the play because I had many half finished nudes of all sizes that could decorate the studio as well as the finished work shown. They chose 6 works to use in the play.  Four male figures and two female figures.  One was to be cast in clay so the actor could pretend to work on it.  It was also designed with a removable head.  This was so it could be pulled off during the play and and reattached for the next play.  At a particular time in the play, the sculptor was supposed to become so frustrated that he would yank off the head of the sculpture he was working on.

Before the play began I got a call from the actor, Cliff Smith, who was to play the sculptor. The stage name of the sculptor was Harvey Perlman. He wanted to get a feel for how it is to be an artist and the artist’s life. We had a lengthy conversation. He, the actor, playing me, the real sculptor. At the end of the call I turned to my wife and said, "he doesn’t sound like me!"

After casting and sending all the pieces, I was invited to be flown to the premier of the play. The theatre was full for the opening and I was invited to stand and introduced as the real sculptor of the work in the play. The play was two parallel lives of one sculptor.  The scenes and lighting drift from one side or one life, the married side, to the side where he has no family. In the one life he decides to take a safer route, get married and become an art teacher. In a corner of the stage, or a corner of the house, he works on a sculpture. It was supposed to represent his unfulfilled potential and dashed dreams. In his other life on the other side of the stage, he forgoes marriage, has a relationship with his model and surpasses his teacher. Thus the actors would bounce from one side to the other comparing two paralleled life's and what those decisions produce. To represent a fulfillment of his potential (on the side with no family) they used my Ignominious piece. His teacher stands there in awe of the piece as the sculptor walks in. The teacher says something like, “You have surpassed me!" They lit the sculpture on stage really well with a raking spot light that accentuated the muscles and texture. I was proud of it.

Ignominious, the sculpture that was used in the play as the sculptor's Magnum Opus

Meanwhile in the other life the wife was portrayed as a nag with complaining kids that dragged him down.  A visitor, an art critic, comes by and sees his unfinished sculpture and states that this is the work of someone with great talent.  But the nagging wife never let's up and he eventually grabs the sculpture in frustration and pulls off the head to ruin the piece. His kids are saddened and his sentence of never becoming the artist he wants to be is sealed. He will forever be trapped, a frustrated artist with a family.  

I must admit I couldn’t help but think of something funny as they all stood around him while he sat in a big chair. It really reminded me of the old sitcom Married with Children.

The booklet was descriptive and informative
with a statement from the writer and director
plus information about all the actors.

This sculpture was used in the play.  I cast it in 

oil based clay, roughed it up to make it look 

unfinished and the head removable so the actor, 
during a fit of frustration, could rip it off during 
the play and be restored for the next performance.

The play, which they hoped would become successful and eventually go on Broadway, came out at a bad time, in the midst of the financial crisis of 2008 and 9.  I went to one other showing of the play before leaving, it was poorly attended and I felt bad for the producers and all the people in the play.

It’s not how I would have displayed the life of a sculptor but at least they made an attempt. The main premiss in this play is about a person that didn’t get to do what he wanted to and all the 'what ifs’ that come with life unfulfilled. Perhaps one day I will write a book about my own life as an artist.  I wonder if I can work into the story the time I wrestled a 20 foot alligator?